From my good friend S

The top ten Hubble telescope pictures have just been published. Truly deserving of the term awesome.


The Ant Nebula

Here's the full gallery.

Cute Bike Shop Boy gets a score of Awesome Plus Ten

So today I spent some time taking care of my poor bike, which I have neither cleaned nor lubricated for approximately 4 months (bad Rebecca! Shame on you!). When I finished, I decided it was time to take care of some other maintenance things that needed attention--such as the replacement of my back tire, which acquired a large, menacing slash that was just waiting to turn into a horribly inconvenient flat tire. So I traipsed over to my favorite bike shop around the corner and the first person I saw was none other than Cute Bike Shop Boy himself (who is married, by the way). He was friendly and helpful and helped me find a replacement tire and some good clipless pedals (I haven't put them on quite yet because yikes! Clipless pedals!), and then we chatted for a bit about holiday travels (I had seen him a bit before I left for Australia and mentioned that I was going on a trip/etc.). And then, THEN, my friends, he tells me that another biker dude who works at that shop part-time is really interested in ants and that we should meet (he was in the store at the time, but things were a bit too busy so I told him to grab me at some other time when they aren't as busy). So, yeah. Awesome Plus Ten. Slowly, I make my inroads towards finding a nice, tall biker boy (even if Bike Shop Boy #2 isn't available, he's still a contact, right?). Heh heh heh...I'll have to invite him to visit our lab.